Document Management News

All consumers, but particularly young people, continue to value the financial documents they receive in the post alongside on-line documents, shows a survey from Forrester Consulting.

The survey was commissioned by InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh. The study shows that consumers value personalised marketing on their documents online but even more so on paper, including targeted promotions on banking, utility and mobile statements.

Younger consumers though do not seem to be moving away from paper, as might be expected. For instance, 70% of consumers aged 25-34 who receive bank statements read them on paper compared to 63% of consumers aged 50-64.

Moreover, across all ages most printed documents are read more than once and often for an average of three minutes.

Even with the shift to electronic communications, over 60% of consumers in France, Germany, Italy, the UK and US read the bank statements they receive in the post even if they are heavy internet users.

While 67% of consumers read their bank/building society documents in paper form, nearly 30% also view their statements online. By contrast, just 26% of consumers only read their statements online. Consumer desire to have both online access and printed statements underscores the importance of multi-channel communications, says Forrester.

The study found that 74% think that personalised, relevant messages are useful, implying that statements present a significant opportunity to enhance a consumer’s perception and loyalty through promotions using TransPromo (combined transactional print and promotional marketing).

The study shows consumers prefer to receive promotions on their paper statements rather than by email, web or direct mail. A third (32%) of consumers choose paper as their preferred channel, compared to email statements at 19%, web statements 8% and direct mail at 6%.

“Forrester’s study reflects our belief that consumers are very receptive to using transactional data and documents to bring them more value – regardless of age, income or country,” said Allen Thrasher, marketing principal at InfoPrint Solutions EMEA.

“Bringing relevant, personalised promotions onto these highly-valued financial documents can make a positive impact on the brand, retention and loyalty as well as ROI. TransPromo truly can be the next wave of customer communications," he said.